Fish, fish everywhere at seafood show

Seafood and "see-food" lovers had plenty of choices at the International Boston Seafood Show at the Boston Convention Center Tuesday afternoon: organic shrimp from Indonesia, crab cakes from Maryland and sashimi from Japan, just to name a few. It was Andrea Angera's first time at the seafood show. The CEO of Litchfield Farms in Litchfield, Conn. decided to come because "I generally go to the food and meat shows." He was pleased that he came to the show.

"There's a cross-section of international and local producers," Angera says. "We represent a line of sustainable and organic seafood" such as Loch Duart Salmon from Scotland and Texas Redfish. Angera says the Loch Duart Salmon sells well.
When asked what his favorite seafood is, Angera says he likes galmos, a type of trout.

Although Norman Siedel of Denver is a veteran of seafood shows, he said it was still a thrill to come because the fish business has "changed dramatically."
"This show gives a person the opportunity to see a lot of facets of the seafood industry," Siedel says. "They should take away a better knowledge of the industry and the challenges they face. I'm definitely coming back next year."

One of the first sights for some show goers is a display of two black fish encased in ice. Patricia Gillette, a representative from Seaflower, Inc. Vietnam, was displaying her fish, called Cobia. It's being marketed as black salmon in the U.S. and is known, so far, only off the coast of Florida. The company had a display of tuna but couldn't bring it to the show because it wasn't up to standards.

"It's equally as nutritious as Atlantic salmon," she says of the black salmon. "We control everything it eats for its entire life. The tuna is caught in Salmon Island and flash frozen at -60 degrees to prevent any deterioration in the fish."

Although it was impossible to know how many vendors were selling organic seafood, it was a common theme with several. They say people who eat organic fish, know that they are eating a fish that wasn't farm raised or have "anything suspicious in it." Of course, everyone also said their fish was better than their competitors'.

Heather Huffman, a fisherman from King Salmon, Alaska, says she and her husband have been coming to the show for four years.
"Love the show," Huffman says. "It's a great place to connect with people in the industry."

When asked what their favorite seafood is, they said "sockeye salmon."
Even government officials got into the act. Toshinori Uoya, the deputy director for the International Economic Affairs Division in Tokyo, says he's participated in food shows before, but it was his first time coming to Boston. He was very happy to promote the ten exhibits of Japanese seafood.

"I think it was worth coming here," Uoya says. "Because of seafood professionals, their reaction. is very positive. In general food shows, sometimes they don't know anything about seafood."
Uoya also discussed the decline of the bluefin tuna, the main ingredient in sushi. Because of worldwide demand, the tuna is disappearing.

"Japanese tuna is managed under domestic regulations, "Uoya says. "In order to protect tuna resources, we shouldn't eat it a lot," Uoya says.